Off-chain determinism
Why is CKB so different compared to other smart contract platforms?
Sparkling
It is often asked by developers why CKB is so different in design compared to other smart contract platforms. In this example, other blockchains will allow the current block height to be read directly by smart contract operations, but why is this not possible on CKB?
The reason for this is simply that CKB delivers “off-chain determinism”. Any transaction sent to CKB describes it’s inputs and outputs, while the block height at which a transaction will be included cannot be known in advance.
In this Nervos Talk post, JJY elaborates on the design philosophy of CKB in this respect and describes the process required of CKB developers to replicate the “read current block height” functionality.
There are advantages to off-chain determinism: it ensures that only valid transactions are included in blocks and relayed through the P2P network, and this means that users will never incur fees for failed transactions and failed transactions will not consume vital block space.
We hope this sparks some inspiration about the future of applications on CKB and look forward to seeing your posts on the forum, now on to the updates!
RFC
Nervos applies the RFC (Request for Comments) process for implementing every building block of the protocol. There were 27 Previous RFCs, which can be found here.
If you are curious about why a design in CKB is what it is now, please post your questions in this repository.
Dev Updates
Core
CKB
(#2488) remove freezer from CHANGELOG
(#2490) upgrade tentacle
(#2454) fix the log output of integration tests and output more logs
(#2473) disable freezer by default
(#2477) hide the AnyError since it's only an internal type
(#2483) fix potential failure in integration tests, such as DifferentTxsWithSameInput
(#2456) document errors
(#2469) add missing documents for test-chain-utils
(#2478) fix test "test_prepare_uncles"; it could failed with a very small chance
(#2470) fix reject tx subscription RPC doc
Dev Tools
Lumos [JavaScript/TypeScript based dapp framework]
CKB Explorer
(#773) Update lock args max-height
Layer 2
Muta [layer2 framework on CKB]
SECBIT Labs [Zero knowledge proof toolkit for CKB]
Godwoken [A framework to build rollup solutions upon Nervos CKB]
(#65) fix stake lock typo
(#64) Limit max in pool txs & withdrawals
(#63) Do not discard txs and withdrawal from pool in package function
(#62) Ignore errored deposition cells
(#61) Add initial setup docs
(#59) Return errors in proper JSONRPC format
(#58) Use cell dep instead of input
(#56) Comment merkle proof validation for now
(#55) Exit runner instead of hanging when errors occur
(#54) Handling cell deps for deposition cells
(#53) Contract args parsing bug
(#52) Fix gw-types no-std
(#48) Fix layer2 SUDT script
Cross-chain
force-bridge-btc [maps BTC on Bitcoin to cBTC on CKB in a trustless way]
force-bridge-eth [maps ETH on Ethereum to cETH on CKB in a trustless way]
Ecosystem
Hxro [Gamified Crypto Trading Platform]
Tocial [cosplayers’ photo sharing app]
Lay2 [pw-sdk, build dApp on CKB and run them everywhere]
Obsidian Labs [developer IDE]
Synapse [browser wallet and keyper agency]
bump version to 0.3.0
improve stylehide lock type for address
update copyable to fill typeHash to manage udt form
add currentWallet module and handle network change
BlockABC [onechain CKB and web auth]
GrowFi [token swap functionality]
Obsidian Systems [CKB integration with ledger wallets]
Summa One [BTC/CKB interoperability] (completed)
(#193) bump ini from 1.3.5 to 1.3.7 in /solidity
LeapDAO [Sidechain Framework]
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CKB Weekly is curated by a group of people who witnessed Lina’s birth and started this to record her growth. Any views expressed are personal and do not represent an official position of the Nervos project. Got updates or articles you would like to include? Any feedback or other suggestions? Let us know by replying to the email.
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Meanwhile, there are links below if you want to learn more about the project and community.